Niall Ferguson

And so a huge swathe of the German economy is suddenly feeling a competitive blast from China that poses a really profound threat to the German economy's future prosperity.

So it's not a good swap because Xi Jinping really isn't offering you great market access in China, except if you want to come and have your technology stolen.

Because market access in China is, remember, you come, you set it up, we clone it, and then we say bye.

That's why I don't think there's a really great choice on the table here, no matter how disgruntled Europeans, Canadians, and Asians may feel with President Trump.

Remember, President Trump is president for three more years.

Probability is that his power wanes, as that tends to happen in a second term.

particularly if the Republicans lose the midterms.

And, you know, time passes and the gravitational forces of American politics do what they do.

It's still the United States.

And the next president will doubtless be quite a different person from this president.

So would it really make sense to reorientate your entire strategy towards a one-party state run by an avowed Marxist-Leninist Maoist, a regime that doesn't have the rule of law,

that routinely incarcerates and disappears people that fall foul of it, a regime that has labor camps, indeed concentration camps in Xinjiang, etc.

I mean, we can all say that the United States has its faults.

But

you take it from me, you would not want to live in a world in which China was the dominant power and in which you had to have a subservient relationship to Beijing.

That would be a much inferior world, even to the world of Donald Trump's extraordinary and egotistical style of American leadership.

When I look at

this, I don't even call it new framework.

I don't wanna use the term new world order.

It feels to me more, less Monroe Doctrine and more, well, maybe it is part of the Monroe Doctrine, but spheres of influence.